


Retrieve the Broken

by StevetheIcecube



Series: The Soulbond Experiment [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Age Regression, Ghost Pains, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Partial Memory Loss, Psychological Torture, References to Suicide, Time Travel, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-24 10:28:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 8,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Bruce were kidnapped for four months. By Amora the Enchantress.</p><p>They were found, but now they flinch at every noise, aggressive movement, anyone getting too close. They never leave the other's side.</p><p>And they don't recognize anyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This Isn't Real

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was written on the mobile version, so more tags need to be added. I will warn you now, this is not going to be a light, happy fic. It is part of a series I have planned. It actually takes place at the end, and the series will be the events of their captivity. This fic is...I'm not even really sure. Angst. Science Bros.

It's just a dream. All of it. We know it.

No one else does. Everyone assures us that it isn't a dream, that this is real and we've been rescued.

We know that we haven't. We gave up that hope so long ago, we know this is just another one of those cruel created realities that aren't real at all, just illusions. They're only ever illusions. They always seem real. We can feel and taste, see, hear.

We always fall in love. That's the point of the tests. They test us over and over with different variables to see if we fall in love. We worked out long ago that they were testing the soul bond theory. Why with us, we have no idea.

We think we thought before that there was nothing different than just partners. Of course, we were a little special, but not with our bond. We thought we were the same as all people who were in love.

But that was before Then.

But we don't remember much of what happened before Then.

We're told all these things about before. Everyone thinks we've been brainwashed, our memories wiped.

We keep trying to tell them that we just spent a long time away, and we aren't sure what is real and what is not anymore. We had things done to us that made the past blur into almost nothing.

We don't exactly know why we bother to resist, try and tell them what actually went on. They're just holograms. Artificial reality.

The artificial reality is a dream. We know because we wake up every time it is over. And we know this isn't real in the sense that things were before.

But we don't really know the difference anymore. It's driving us mad. Well, it would be, if we weren't mad already.

It's making us irritated, then. Yes, irritated.

They keep trying to tell us that this is real.

They keep telling us that the tall blonde person is Steve Rogers, Captain America, and didn't we remember him? How much we argued? And over there, the slightly shorter blonde, that was Clint Barton. Don't you remember teasing him?

There are others that they point out. Natasha Romanoff, and the other redheaded woman who cries whenever she sees us, and whenever we say that we don't remember her. She cries when we flinch away from things, but she always pulls herself together after a couple of sniffles. She always leaves when she sees us standing close together. Her name is Virginia Potts, but she gets upset if we call her anything but Pepper.

Many people look at us with worried looks. Almost everyone. There are a few, Natasha and Clint being two of them, who always keep a straight face when we are around them. It unnerves us because that is what They were like. They had no emotion.

No, They /have/ no emotion. We are still there. Nothing is real except us.

We are Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, the only truly real things in all these crazy worlds we suffer through.


	2. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Technically the start. I guess.
> 
> They had been worried that they would never find Tony and Bruce. There had been no trace of them for four months and then suddenly, inexplicably, they found them. It was a mission to destroy a warehouse of drugs. Not find two high-priority hostages.

There were two people in the drug warehouse.

They thought that maybe it was two civilians. That they'd gone to the wrong place, maybe, as there were no drugs to be found. There was an area sectioned off from the main warehouse which served as a cell for two hostages, but both the hostages were out cold, bound together by their hands and ankles, lying on the single bed awakwardly. Their heads were covered by a large blanket which spanned both of their bodies and encompased them. By their size, the agents guessed that they were in their twenties, either that or they were extreme dieters or they had been there with very little food for quite a while.

As they seemed perfectly asleep for the moment, they were left there, the door re-locked as a precaution and a rookie agent posted as a guard outside the door. Then they went on to searching the main part of the room, which was dotted with various torture devices.

Closer inspection got the agents worried. All the devices had been used. Recently, too. There was a metal chair bolted to the ground. Next to it, on a table, lay various knives and razors. Several of these had blood on them.

There was a sick stain on the floor next to an empty table.

There were several mattresses on the floor. Several of these were stained with white splotches. It was fresh.

Everything was dirty. It was as if the occupants of the building had left only half an hour before the agents had gotten there. And apart from a few drugs here and there, there was nothing that the agents had really come for in the first place.

They downloaded a few files which were clearly in code off an old computer. Two files. One was marked 2120, the other 33. Then they went to check on the hostages. They were both still yet to move, and one particularly impatient male agent grabbed the blanket and pulled it away.

"Oh God. Everyone come here RIGHT NOW." He commanded. The two hostages were stick thin and sickly pale. It had not been clear through the blanket, but they were pressed closely together. Their clothes were in rags, threadbare and pale. They had no socks nor shoes, and their feet were littered with impressive sores. Any stretch of bare skin was marred with cuts and bruises. As he slept, the very slightly broader man twitched. They appeared to be quite young, maybe twenty five at the oldest, as young as eighteen at the youngest. Their faces were tense.

But it was the features of their faces that this male agent noticed the most.

Because one of the men was the spitting image of Stark when he was just out of college. And the other was clearly a young Doctor Banner.

"Agent Doles, get someone to get a couple of beds ready in medical." One of the agents, Agent Fier, spoke into his earpiece. "We have unexpectedly found and are starting to retrieve Stark and Banner."

Agent Doles made a noise of disbelief. "How bad is it for Stark? I need to give medical a quick rundown."

"Stark /and/ Banner have been tortured. Certainly physical and sexual torture. Both have injuries over all visible skin. The Hulk is most likely destroyed considering Banner's condition."

"Okay. Bring them in. Carefully."


	3. Still Sleeping (With Worry For When They Wake)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Bruce remain asleep, for now. The Avengers are called in with news of their return, and the medical branch of SHIELD find out just how much more powerful the men's capturers are than them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE how much feedback this is getting. Thank you all!
> 
> I got no questions about this, but the file names and decoding goes like this.
> 
> Revert the numbers into alphabetical form: UT and CC. Then Caesar Shift them one back: TS and BB.

"I can't believe we didn't find them sooner." Steve said, looking down at his unconscious teammates with guilt plain in his expression. "SHIELD postponed raiding that for two months for the search for them."

"You can feel bad, but there's nothing we can do about it, Steve. We can't travel back in time." Natasha replied, a rare, genuine warmth in her voice.

They were all waiting for some form of change in the condition of the two. There were suspicions that they had been sedated, but without the blood tests no one could be sure. They had been asleep for twelve hours at SHIELD. Bruce's wounds had not healed.

And of course, there was that age thing. There had been a lot of internet searches by the people in charge of the information at SHIELD, and they both seemed about the age that they left college, as far as facial features went, and size.

They were both dangerously underweight, and there had been IVs pumping nutrients into them for the past four hours. From injuries they could not see, Bruce had a fractured arm and one broken rib, and Tony had two broken ribs, which moved dangerously close to puncturing a lung when they were moved in. Their ribs had been bound and Bruce's arm had been supported. There was little that could be done about all the other wounds they had sustained for the moment. None had been infected and none were particularly dangerous. Just meant to inflict pain. It was a clear sign of repetitive torture.

"What do you think happened to the Hulk?" Clint asked. "He never lets Bruce get injured."

"The Hulk was probably controlled by the people they were captured by." Natasha answered almost immediately. "Bruce said that his injuries heal either by themselves or they heal instantly when the Hulk comes out."

"But do you really think that the Hulk can be controlled?" Clint asked.

"If you can regress people's ages by twenty years then you can control the Hulk."

"I guess." Clint said, looking down at the two again. They looked so...vulnerable. Tony especially had always been guarded about letting anyone see who he really was. Clint had never actually seen him whilst he was sleeping before. And he'd seen Tony with huge bruises from where the suit had battered him, and with a few minor injuries from after a kidnapping that lasted maybe three hours before Tony escaped, but never like this. There were areas of his body swollen which Clint didn't want to know what he had gone through when it happened. It was much the same with Bruce, though all of the Avengers had seen him while he was sleeping, because he had a habit of falling asleep on Tony's shoulder during movies, or he'd fall asleep in the Avengers common floor on the couch after a battle. But they had never seen him injured before.

*A*

The blood results came in and everyone was a whole lot more worried than they were before.

They were dealing with magic, according to Thor. It was weaved into their blood, probably into their genes, too. There was evidence to believe that the Hulk had been restrained by magic, but without an expert, they wouldn't be able to tell. But Thor said that it was perfectly possible that the Hulk had been restrained, and it was certain that the regression in their age had been caused by magic. No one knew, without an expert, how permanent the spells were.

"I could get Loki to help. It would only take some of your mortal photography devices and I could get his advice on it. He is the second most advanced power of magic in the nine worlds."

It took a long time, but eventually a conclusion was reached. If the decoding of the two files left anything unclear, then Thor would go and get the opinion of his brother.

But for now, they had to wait until the files were decoded, and of course, they had to wait for Tony and Bruce to wake up.


	4. I Don't Know You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce wakes up.

I opened my eyes slowly. I felt sluggish, so I'd probably been sedated. It's hard to sleep without sedation, and They need us to have enough energy so we scream when They torture us.

Tony wasn't next to me.

Usual panic. It happens every so often, they take Tony from me but I never get used to it. But something was different this time.

For the first time in what felt like forever, the Other Guy responded. For so long my head has been quiet, and he's never tried to break out. But he's back. The only time he's ever there is in dreams and that isn't often.

I breathed in and out. Slowly. In, out. He receded, thankfully. Whenever he came out terrible things happened. In one dream, he killed Tony. I set up a suicide the Other Guy couldn't escape from. Drowning in a very secure room. It was horrible but worth it.

I looked around the unfamiliar room. Tony was next to me, still out cold. He always woke before me unless we were sedated. He'd be asleep for another hour and a half, give or take thirty seconds. But otherwise, nothing in this room was familiar in the aspect that we had been here before. We've been in so many similar rooms, I can hardly count them all.

I have my memories. All of them. But this isn't the dream room, this isn't the cell. It isn't any of the tortures.

We must be in a dream. We have to be, there's no other plausible explanation.

We've never been in a dream with our memories before. There have been feelings, ones that convince us that we're crazy. Before we meet each other and we realise that all along we're the sane ones.

But never with memories.

I looked down at Tony. He's marred with all the injuries we've been given in the latest torture session still. Again, odd. Maybe there's a problem with the spell this time. Like when our dream selves dropped dead for no reason.

There's an IV strapped onto my arm. It looks like it's pumping pure calories into my body. I feel sick at the thought. I haven't been well-fed for forty-seven dreams now. I'd have really died from starvation during torture if we could die.

I ripped the IV out by instinct. I didn't really mean to do it. I just couldn't stand having it in any longer.

I started to get out of bed, not feeling too weak, when a tall, muscled blonde man came into the room. I jumped, moving slightly closer to Tony so I could protect him should the man attack him while he couldn't protect himself. Just instinct, again, because for so long it's all been torture and harm, lies and manipulation.

"Bruce, don't worry." The man said, holding up his hands in a form of surrender. I didn't do anything but move a little closer to Tony again. "Bruce, you're at SHIELD. No one is going to hurt you. You know us, we wouldn't do that."

Confusion flickered in my mind. "How do you know my name?" I asked, keeping my tone guarded. If I let him see any kind of weakness then I was done for.

"Bruce, of course I know your name! We've known each other for over a year!"

"I don't know you." I said. "I've met a lot of people but I don't know you."

"Bruce, you've had your memory tampered with. What do you remember?"

I glared at him. "Everything. I have impeccable memory." Just not before Then. I don't really remember anything from before Then.


	5. You're Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wakes up and the Avengers worry even more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE YOU ALL. No. Seriously. I do.

I watched carefully as Tony's eyes flickered open, checking for a flash of recognition, just in case I was the only one with my memories. Thankfully, he recognised me. "Bruce." He whispered. "What's going on?"

"A dream, I'm pretty sure. Of us being rescued, according to Steve. They seem to think I've had my memory adjusted. So they're the people from before Then."

Tony shivered. "That was so long ago. They can't be serious."

"That's why it's a dream." I said. "They say we're at SHIELD. You know them, right? You have your memories?"

"Yes." Tony said, furrowing his face. "And of course I know SHIELD. Half of the time that I'm Iron Man they're the bad guys who hate you. We always hate them, even if they're the good ones."

"It's okay, though. I have the Other Guy back. We can get out if we need to."

"You're being a knight in shining armour again? That's my job."

"If you're Iron Man in this world and you get your hands on a suit it's your job again, deal?"

Tony smiled. "Deal."

*A*

"Are you getting all of this, Cap?" Clint asked.

"Yes." Steve's face was furrowed into a frown. "I don't like it, either. It doesn't seem like Tony and Bruce."

"We'll just have to be careful around them." Natasha suggested. "See if they'll give us more information so we can piece it together."

"They already don't trust us." Clint said. "Maybe it's better to leave them to it, see if time around the people they knew will help them."

"Maybe get them away from SHIELD?" Thor suggested. "They seem uncomfortable and the scientists have been eager to study them."

"There's better protection here." Clint argued.

"There's JARVIS at Stark Tower." Steve suggested. "He might be able to tell us more, too."

"Stark Tower is too public." Natasha said. "But Stark's main home used to be Malibu. It's private and JARVIS is there, too."

"How are we going to get the clearance to take them away, though?" Steve asked.

"I have the clearance. Fury wants rid of them, he doesn't want Stark hacking anything, or Banner hulking out."


	6. Mimic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha goes to have a conversation with Tony during the time Bruce is having his arm checked.

"Tony." Natasha greeted. Tony looked up, wariness clear in his eyes. She'd gone to him when Bruce wasn't there, just for a minute or so. They had stuck together for the full twelve hours they had been awake, but eventually Bruce had been called to have his arm checked on. He'd gone with little protest, but Tony was just sitting where he was, being the twitchy man that Natasha remembered from when he was dying.

"I don't remember you." He said flatly. "Don't bother asking."

Natasha felt the tiniest twinge of sadness at his words, but didn't let it show in her body language at all, nor her face. "You didn't like me much before. I'll make a new impression, instead. I'm Natasha Romanoff."

"I won't bother with an introduction because you know who I am." Stark seemed like he was paying attention to what she said, though he had stopped facing her and looked back down at his hands. "You all do."

"You're a well-known person, Stark. I was coming to let you know that I'm meeting with Nick Fury later today about getting you out of here and to your home in New York."

"Can I have a name for it?" He asked, and Natasha caught the hopeful hint in his tone.

"It's called Stark Tower." Tony sighed. "Did you think you'd recognise the name?" She was well aware she wasn't acting as she used to around Stark. But she couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't quite the same person that she used to know. He was a lot younger, of course, but he still had all the looks that she could recognise in him, including the arc reactor. But it was all /wrong/. It seemed like Stark, it just...wasn't.

"I thought I might. But I don't." The raw disappointment in his body language, voice and face shocked Natasha. "I remember a lot more than you seem to think. Just not from before Then."

Something was off about the way he said it. She wasn't sure what. It seemed to almost lack conviction.

That was when Bruce came back into the room, going straight over to Tony without hesitation, though he carefully avoided getting too close to Natasha. "I don't remember you." He said instantly. "Don't bother asking."

Natasha nodded and left the room after a brief introduction, refusing to admit to herself that the mimic of the words Tony had spoken to her hadn't scared her.


	7. Conditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint goes to talk to Tony and Bruce to see if he can confirm what Natasha thinks; they aren't the same as they were, but he also goes over with them what the plans are for the future.

"Hey." Clint said as he entered the room. "I don't expect you to remember me, we didn't spend much time together."

"Good." Tony said, looking up from whatever he was doing. He had a pen in his hands, though. "Because I don't remember you. But, you know, an introduction would help."

"Clint Barton." Clint said, noticing that the sarcasm was almost the same. "Or Hawkeye. I shoot arrows at the bad guys."

Tony mumbled something to Bruce, and Bruce nodded, but neither of them said anything to Clint.

"I just wanted to talk, and I want to talk to you about what's going to happen now you've been cleared to leave."

Tony frowned. "Natasha said something about that."

"She did." Clint said, moving to sit down on the bed, next to the two (who Clint noticed were sitting very close together), but the moment he sat down, both Tony and Bruce inched along the bed, and Clint caught a slight flinch from them both. "Okay, I won't sit too close. Fair enough. Anyway, Natasha met with Nick Fury earlier, and he said that you could both leave as long as you stayed in Stark Tower and we were to stay there too. You have to give various samples to the SHIELD magic research department and you have to attend a debrief and a psych evaluation at some point in the next four months." His voice was more terse than he'd expected, he was leaving out a very vital detail of the agreement that had already happened, one that he really didn't want the two to know.

"A psych evaluation? No way. Give us four months and we'll be able to tell you all those problems ourselves. We could right now, if you want." Bruce offered.

"Uh, no, not right now. I'm not a psychologist." Clint was kind of surprised Tony hadn't made a joke about the kinds of samples they wanted. And that they hadn't picked up that he was hiding something. "And your word isn't trusted at the moment. Because your memories have been altered, you know. You could be telling us anything."

Both Tony and Bruce glared at him. "Our memories haven't been altered." Tony said coldly. "The memory loss was natural. A side-effect of what happened."

"See?" Clint said. "You're spurting a bunch of crap and it's only making it harder for you because you're being cryptic about it!"

Bruce squinted at him. "Damn I need my glasses back." He muttered. "And what are you hiding? Because you're being pretty cryptic, too." He added.

Clint made a mental note to get some glasses for Bruce before responding. "Well, Director Fury told the press that you've been found."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS JUST ASK. I will not hesitate to answer, I have replied to every comment so far and I intend to continue doing so. If you want spoilers I will tell you :) Anything for you guys :)


	8. Imperceptible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint observes Tony and Bruce further, and reports back to the other Avengers.

"The press?" Tony asked, his eyes widening slightly, and Clint saw the almost imperceptible movement of Bruce, who moved slightly closer to Tony. "We're famous, right?"

Clint got the feeling there were a lot of things that they weren't saying. No one had told Tony nor Bruce that they were famous. "Yes, you are. So far, the press has done a lot of demanding for the both of you. But it's you who gets to accept or decline."

"Decline." Bruce said immediately. "We don't like people bugging us." He was looking pointedly at Clint, but Clint ignored him. The Avengers needed information on them both, and he needed to get it.

"Why _are_ you bugging us?" Tony asked. "I'm sure you have world-saving to do."

Clint grinned. "I don't. We only operate in world-class emergencies. And I'm not bugging you, I'm just talking."

"You could stop talking." Tony suggested. "Then no one would be complaining. Or you could go away, then we'd be happy."

Clint didn't move, instead moving from observing their body language to what they were actually saying. There was something acutely odd about it that he couldn't pin. "No need to be nasty, Tony. I'm trying to be nice."

"We really would appreciate it if you left." Bruce said tersely.

He had it. They were talking in plural without referring for opinions. "I'll leave if you tell me one thing that happened when you were captive that you think has something to do with your memory loss."

Tony's eyes flickered briefly to Bruce before he looked back to Clint. "Sadism."

Clint nodded and left. "Good enough."

*A*

"Something is really up with them." Clint said. The three faces around him were somber, as was his own expression.

"They have no memories, but they claim to remember everything." Steve said, and Natasha started a list for both Pepper and JARVIS, taking down what they were saying.

"But they're hiding something big. They know about things that people with only four months of knowledge shouldn't know. They guessed that they were famous." Clint said.

"They have been meddled with, using magic." Thor said. "They appear to have regressed in age but Anthony still has his chest piece."

"They react almost exactly the same to most situations they've been in recently." Natasha said. "They've gone as far to say exactly the same thing without seeing how the other reacted."

"Bruce left Tony's side only once." Steve said. "And Tony appeared more vulnerable at this time."

"They're touching most of the time." Natasha added. "Though mostly it's subtle. No kissing, unlike before."

Thor chuckled lightly. "It was more common to see them with their lips locked together than not."

"That isn't the case now. They sleep while embraced, and they almost always sit so closely that they're practically pressed together." Natasha said, steering the conversation away from what the pair were like before.

"Except when there are people in the room." Clint contradicted. "Though if anything upsets either of them they move closer together. And they won't come within a foot of any of us. Further for doctors."

"Anything else?" Natasha asked. "I can't think of anything at the moment."

"They keep speaking in plural." Clint said. "'We' and 'us' rather than 'me'."

"Okay. Right, I'll send this to Pepper. We can leave in two days time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I go back to school tomorrow, so unfortunately updates will slow down a little.


	9. Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor goes to see the pair a day before they are set to leave for Stark Tower, and he leaves surprised and confused.

"Greetings, Anthony and Doctor Bruce." A huge blonde man greeted, spreading his arms.

I froze. This man was...huge. And threatening. He was too close, too close, god, no. I have to get away from him, or it will just happen again. I shifted closer to Bruce, and I could feel him shaking slightly. I probably was too.

The man frowned. "It is only me!" He said. "There is no need to show fear." He stepped a little closer and it was choking. Choking. He was everywhere, this huge man with massive hands and that air about him that was so terrifying and unknown-

He was like Her.

"Go." Bruce said, his voice wavering slightly. "Please, go."

The man raised a hand and we both tensed.

He left.

I breathed a sigh of relief and practically collapsed into Bruce's arms. It was something that I've been told so many times makes me weak and feeble. But Bruce still always holds me and we can calm down then.

"There are people like Her here." I mumbled.

"I know." Bruce said softly. "But the people who aren't like that must know he isn't human. So he must be a good one."

"I didn't think there were good ones." I said. "But then again, this is still a dream. So things are warped."

Bruce pulled me closer. "We're together, we're fine. This is a dream, we will leave it eventually."

"It's a very odd dream." I said. "We still have our memories and this is meant to be what happens after Then, I think. We've always been in a universe that is completely familiar because we've grown up there in the dream. But here all we've had is things we don't really know about. We're unsure of what is happening outside this room."

Bruce nodded. "We've been hiding all of that from them." He commented.

"They haven't asked for it." I said, shrugging. "We don't have to say if they don't ask."

*A*

"You may add a fear of Asgardians to the list." Thor said, rare gloominess in his voice. "They spoke only three words and that was to ask for my departure."

Natasha sighed. "Don't feel too bad, Thor." She said. "They seem afraid of a lot of things. And as long as they stay together afterwards they seem fine."

"That is poor comfort, Lady Natasha." Thor said. "I was hoping that when they recovered we could go back to enjoying merriment as we used to."

Clint smiled. "They're different now. We just have to hope that they get their memories back."


	10. Coughing and Retching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the journey to Stark Tower on the quinjet, something very unexpected happens and there is yet another puzzle to solve on exactly what happened in those four months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, school :( Anyway, at the moment homework does not take up every spare moment I have, so I made the most of it and wrote most of this chapter at school.

The pair jumped when the quinjet engines fired up. Natasha sighed. They'd been like this all day. Jumping when doors opened, when people moved too close, when someone spoke to them.

On the way to the quinjet, they were purposely led through the places on the Helicarrier that they'd been to before, in another attempt to get their memories back. But there was nothing. No sudden realization, no flash of recognition in their eyes. Just them being themselves, except they weren't really themselves anymore.

Pepper had been distraught at the list she had been sent. Though she and Tony had broken up three weeks before he had been kidnapped, she was still his CEO and his third-oldest friend and cared deeply for him. She still took care of him when Bruce forgot to, which was when they were both doing a science spree.

From what Natasha had deduced from the short conversation they had over the phone, Pepper was determined to get Tony's memories back, and she was also pretty certain that she could do it without too much hardship. Natasha told her not to get her hopes up, but as far as she could tell, Pepper hadn't paid any attention to her advice.

The journey to Stark Tower was spent mostly in complete, tense silence. Thor had opted to fly outside of the quinjet to make Tony and Bruce a little more comfortable. Bruce and Tony showed no guilt at making Thor fly to Stark Tower himself, relief was the emotion that showed more on their faces.

Clint and Natasha were still looking especially hard for clues about the pair. They'd spent most of the last two days on the Helicarrier analysing the video feeds they had of them. There was no sound still, after an April Fools prank that meant Tony managed to reprogram the cameras to no longer record sound. No one had managed to fix it yet. They had noticed a few extra things which were worth noting; Tony looked to Bruce for reassurance, not the other way round, and it was Tony who initiated the touch first, mostly, and he seemed to get slightly more out of the physical contact. It was probably very important, they just didn't know why. They needed the debrief to come soon or they needed a detailed analysis from someone who knew Tony and Bruce well. Namely Pepper. It was up to her, Rhodey or even JARVIS to give them a few more answers.

For now, Bruce and Tony were banned from all labs and workshops in the building. They weren't happy about the ban, but no one really cared. There were other things that they needed to be doing, like regaining their memories and catching up with now over four months of business they had missed. And rest. They needed a lot of rest, they weren't exactly healthy and they hadn't gotten much sleep since they had been unconscious. They were plagued by nightmares, it seemed, and those ended in hours of them holding each other tightly on one of the beds that the agents hated so much because they were so thin. It really showed that they needed those nutrient drips that they kept refusing. It was as if they had a death wish.

No one put those thoughts into words because no one wanted to know what the response would be.

The silence was broken in the final five minutes of the journey by harsh coughing. Everyone turned around, startled to see Tony almost doubled over, his face contorted in pain, coughing and retching.


	11. Comfort and Intimacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve puts his foot in his mouth and Tony and Bruce share an intimate moment.
> 
> And, you know, they arrive at Stark Tower. But that isn't important (It is).

Immediately, Bruce put a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Tony, stop." He said gently. "You're not there, it isn't happening, you're just imagining it." Tony's coughing lessened slightly but didn't stop.

Surprisingly, Steve was the one to think of something to say to calm Tony down. "It's not real, Tony. Nothing you're seeing is real." He said softly.

Tony froze, and Natasha could hear Bruce's sharp intake of breath and see the flash of fury in his eyes. "Steve." She warned. "Don't say anything else."

Steve looked apologetic. "I'm really sorry, Tony."

Tony looked up, his gaze so full of pure hate that Steve shrank back a little in his seat. Then Tony ducked his head, his body wracking in silent sobs. It was shocking how quickly that his mood changed. "Don't say anything." Bruce said slowly. He then turned to Clint, who was flying the quinjet. "Can you slow the jet down a little so I can get out of my seat?"

Clint opened his mouth to speak, but remembered what Bruce had said and simply nodded, slowing the quinjet. Bruce unclipped his seatbelt, lowly getting out of his seat. He knelt in front of Tony and took Tony's hand in one of his own. "Tony, it's okay." He whispered, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of Tony's hand. "Steve didn't mean that. He doesn't know what it means."

Bruce unclipped Tony from his seat and lead Tony over to a bench, which was usually used when people were kitting up to, say, jump out of the quinjet. Both him and Tony sat down and Bruce pulled Tony to his chest.

Natasha could see that Bruce was having trouble holding it together, and he had a good reason to be finding it hard. She'd seen Tony's face briefly as they'd sat down, and Tony had gone ghostly pale and there were faint tear tracks on his face.

They sat there for a long time, no one doing anything but breathing and in Clint's case, flying the jet. Bruce and Tony were still holding each other tightly, and Natasha was pretty sure that Bruce was crying, too. His breath intake seemed to imply that, but neither of them were making a sound.

Steve looked awkward. And very guilty.

It took a while, now that they were going slowly, but Stark Tower finally came into view. It would be a few more minutes to get there, but no one minded, compared to the near-hour they had spent in the jet so far. Thor hadn't slowed with them, so he had long since landed at Stark Tower and would have spoken to Pepper.

Tony and Bruce were still sat in the same position, but now it looked to be less of a comforting moment and more of an intimate one.

"Terribly sorry to interrupt," Clint said, a hint of glee in his voice, "but we're landing now, so you need to get back in your seats."

"You sound like a flight attendant." Tony said, grinning. All of his usual snark was back. "'Please return to your seats, we will be encountering unexpected turbulence.'" He said, mimicking the voice of a flight attendant. Clint laughed good-naturedly and started to land once Tony and Bruce were back in their seats.


	12. Unsettling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They arrive at the Tower.

Bruce and Tony stepped reluctantly out of the plane, behind everyone else. They were standing about as close together as they could without touching, and it looked bit like the were leaning on each other, they just weren't. It presented a very united front, Pepper mused.

They were a lot younger than they used to be. Of course, Tony had made an effort to look younger before, in fact he had to die both his hair and his goatee. But Bruce had never tried to look younger, as far as she knew, though she was pretty sure that the Hulk had aged him in a way.

But this wasn't just an effort. They looked like they were college students or something similar. And their faces...they looked vulnerable. They were very battered, though the bruises were fading. But their eyes looked red, as if they'd been crying.

She smiled brightly at them both, though mainly at Tony. He was the one she was more confident about. She was sure she could get his memories back, she knew that much about him.

Bruce sighed and closed his eyes. "Sorry. We don't know who you are. We don't remember you in any way, shape or form and we don't have any gut feelings about you."

Tony didn't say anything and his expression didn't change at all. Pepper felt her heart sink. It seemed Tony didn't remember her after all. She was relying on some form of recognition from Tony. "Okay." She said, renewing a now very fake smile. "Well, I'm Virginia Potts, but never call me anything but Pepper. I used to be Tony's girlfriend and before that and after I've been the person who bosses him around."

Tony smiled weakly.

"We had an incident." Natasha said. "On the quinjet. That's why we took longer than expected." It seemed like a very awkward thing to say, but Pepper understood. They weren't normally like this, they were just a little shaken from whatever happened.

"I need to show you two your floor." Pepper said, going down a set of stairs that lead to Tony's private elevator, which recognized hers, Tony's, Rhodey's and Bruce's voices only. The other Avengers went down the other stairs. "This is where Tony has lived since the Tower was constructed and Bruce moved in about a week before you were kidnapped." Tony nodded, and they both jumped as the elevator doors shut. "This is voice recognition. Penthouse."

The elevator only moved for a short while before it stopped, the penthouse being only a floor down from the roof, of course. "Well, I'll leave you to it. Just come down if you need anything." She said, deciding not to introduce the pair to JARVIS. It would be too much shock for one day, most likely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter. Feeling a little low on inspiration. But JARVIS and most likely the other bots will make an appearance next chapter. Which will bring another surprise. :)


	13. Settling In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Bruce explore the penthouse.

Seeing the plush carpet, I kicked off the shoes I'd been given when I woke up. They were a bit too big and they rubbed my sore feet, anyway. Bruce did likewise.

I looked around me. The elevator seemed to be the only exit other than a glass door out onto an odd-looking balcony, at the end of which stood a circular platform.

The room we were in was a living room with a bar, but there were no bottles or cans at the bar at all. They probably removed the bottles for our safety or something, so we wouldn't drink ourselves to death. We think that they think we're stupid, just because we don't remember them, when actually we've been running circles around them since we woke up.

They have plumbing troubles on the Helicarrier, now. We removed a few things from the bathroom to make a couple of weapons. Nothing fancy, just enough to break the skin if you put a wad of paper in the right end. They're cumbersome weapons, but they'll do for the moment. We'll be able to make better ones from the things in this room alone. There's so much electricity in here that's visible, and there'll be even more hidden, because I designed this place, apparently. Though I can't imagine that I would have actually designed the interior. It's far too elegant.

"This place is pretty bare..." Bruce commented. I nodded.

"And the couch looks uncomfortable." I added.

"Well, we won't have to sleep there, I don't think." Bruce said, smiling. "There's a door here to a bedroom."

We stepped into the bedroom slowly. It was large, and as clean as the other room was. The bed took up most of the room, and there were two other sets of doors. "I bet that one of those doors leads to a walk-in closet." Bruce said, smirking at me. 

I let out a rough laugh. "We're so bad at pretending nothing is wrong." I commented.

Bruce nodded. "We need to make a checklist of the things they /really/ shouldn't say."

"That goes on it." I said, awkwardly sitting down on the side of the bed. "Along with The Thing." I could feel my throat constricting at even the thought of It.

"Tony, it's okay." Bruce said slowly, though I could hear the falter in his voice, too. "We don't have to do this now."

"Yeah. I need sleep." I said, groaning as I realised just how tired I was.

Bruce smiled fondly at me. "Food first. Do you know how we can even get food here?" He glanced up at the ceiling.

"You can get the elevator down to the common floor, Doctor Banner."

I froze. "Jarvis?" I gasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a couple people point out that Tony and Bruce are meant to be in Malibu :) And they were, but now they have to be there for press reasons and business and it's easier to keep people in a building if they're high above the ground.
> 
> Listen to Aviators. That's what I use for inspiration. Sorry. Spontaneous moment. I try my best to block out the screams but they're haunting me in my dreams. Please break my shackles, I want it to stop. Those are lyrics to a remix he did. It fits this so well I kinda dance to this song when writing :) I love the song so much.


	14. Called your Bluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper questions the pair on their memory of JARVIS.

"Miss Potts, I must inform you that there is a problem on the penthouse level." JARVIS said evenly.

Pepper's head snapped up from the email she was sending to yet another persistent press member. "What's going on?" She asked worriedly.

"Sir and Doctor Banner appear to remember my presence."

Pepper stood up and strode over to the elevator. "Take me straight up, JARVIS."

*A*

"Tony, this is great!" Bruce said, smiling at me. I nodded happily. Jarvis has often been there. Not always, because I didn't always have the means to create him. We don't remember the names or faces of people in the dreams, but coding never changes. Though sometimes his name is in capitals, which is when I've had a close friend and a protector in another man who is not Bruce or my father (or one of two other men, on occasion), so I presume that his name was Jarvis. Most of the time, I've just liked the name. He always, always has a British accent. It's always the same voice.

"You are Jarvis, aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes, sir, I am indeed. May I ask how you remember me and not any other real things from the past?"

Sentient, too. That's good. "Coding. Did I write you in my own code language?"

"You did, sir."

I smiled brightly at Bruce. "That's when you say that I'm a genius."

Then we heard someone enter the penthouse, high heels making a sound on the hard floor. We both tensed. Someone new? Or maybe Pepper?

She opened the door, revealing herself to be Pepper. "Tony, Bruce," she said, smiling tersely, "do you remember anything now?"

"We remember a lot of things." Bruce said. "But not your significance in our lives, if that was what you were wondering."

"Then how do you remember JARVIS?" She demanded, stepping a little further into the room.

"Is he in capitals here?" I asked, not bothering to answer the question.

"Yes, he is." Pepper said. "But you didn't answer my question."

"Coding." I answered simply, deciding to continue with being cryptic, because damn what anyone else thought, it's fun being cryptic. "And could we please have some food? We haven't eaten since this morning and we were expected to get here before lunch but panic attacks decided otherwise."

Pepper nodded, but she was frowning deeply. "You do still like pizza, don't you?"

I smiled slightly, and Bruce looked over at me, seeing straight through my fake smile. "Yeah. It's just nothing mashed up or anything like gruel or porridge."

"And I don't think anything too rich would help, either." Bruce added.

Pepper nodded and left. "I'll bring it up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates may slow down because I accidently caused the computer to throw a hissy fit and I've been banned from it because it costs 50 pounds to get it fixed. (That's more than 50 dollars or 50 euros)


	15. Chapter 15

We ate in silence. Pepper didn't bother to eat with us. We don't think she likes us much. We don't like her much. We don't like many people in this dream. Not many people. Hah. Not any people would be a more accurate description. We don't understand why they feel the need to try and get our supposed memories back, even though it's a dream so why would Then have happened? This is the most confusing dream yet. We hate it.

They're lying to us all the time, too. They told us about the press, and they told us anything we asked about, but they haven't really told us what they want from us (though they want our memories back), and they didn't tell us about Jarvis (though he's meant to have capitals. I'd rather leave him as Jarvis.) or much about themselves. They seem keen to be vague, and it doesn't make sense. They're confusing. They don't work the same way as we remember people working in all the dreams, though things are different in each of those so it might just be that.

When we were finished eating, and the pizza was very nice (there seemed to be things that were meant to be memory triggers in there, too, but they don't work), we went to the massive walk-in closet that we had predicted would be there, and tried to find some casual clothes. Mostly there were things that seem to occur in most dreams; band t-shirts, jeans, brightly coloured shirts. All things that were our favourites in most of the dreams (though the dream in which Bruce was an emo was very different and definitely amusing). So again, another attempt at a memory trigger.

It was tiresome, but eventually we found the essentials, though we may have asked Jarvis for help. We changed into clothes we were more comfortable wearing, (nothing too thick for trousers, something that covered the light of the reactor, but something warm that kept any chill out) and sat back down on the bed.

"Plan of action?" Bruce asked, but after a moments pause we shook our heads. We didn't need a plan, we could just roll with it. Rolling with it left us with our instincts, and funnily enough (catch the sarcasm here?) after Then we have very good instincts.

But there was one thing we needed to work out; what would we say when it came to the debrief in three months time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite short, but I'll try and update soon.


	16. Bombshell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just read to the end. I didn't mean to reveal it this early.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a deleted scene here which I did actually delete. By accident. Maybe it'll make its way as a drabble onto the series. It took place just before the start of the chapter. But I'm too lazy to rewrite it.

"JARVIS, can you get Tony and Bruce to come down here, please?" Clint asked.

All the Avengers were assembled on the communal floor, wanting to talk to the pair about their time in captivity. Pepper had told them that they remembered JARVIS in some form but she wasn't sure how. And the pair hadn't actually given much information about those four months. The only information directly conveyed had been that their captors were sadistic and they had done something to the pair that had severely damaged them.

Natasha had looked at their files, which had been updated by Fury just before they left for Stark Tower, and their classification had horrified her. They were classified as 'damaged and possibly volatile assets. Former members of the Avengers Initiative.'

They had to get them back on the team, if only to prove Fury wrong. Sure, Natasha hadn't approved Tony for the Avengers in the first place, but she had revised that decision after the events of the battle of New York.

"Yes, Agent Barton."

*A*

They were both down within a few minutes, looking slightly nervous, but they were masking it well. Natasha was just too good at hiding her own emotions not to notice and see right through the masks of everyone else.

"You wanted to speak with us?" Bruce asked nervously. He was slightly ahead of Tony and standing just a tiny bit in front of him. It was a protective stance if there ever was one.

"You can sit down." Steve said. Everyone else was.

Tony and Bruce eyed Thor warily and sat on the other side of the room to him. "So?"

"You need to tell us more." Clint stated.

Bruce nodded. "What do you want us to tell you?"

"We don't want you to gloss over the details." Natasha said. "And we want the truth."

"You do want us to gloss over the details." Tony corrected. "We just won't tell you it all in every detail. You really don't want us to."

"We can take whatever happened. I'm sure worse has happened to me." Clint said.

Bruce shook his head. "Untrue."

"You were captured for four months. I've had constant torture for my whole childhood."

Bruce looked at Tony. They shared a confused look. "We weren't captive for four months. I knew this was just another dream."

"I can't be." Tony mumbled. "There's been nothing even remotely close to this in any of the dreams."

Bruce paused for a second, but then nodded. "We weren't gone for four months. I'd say it was more like two hundred years."


	17. Conclude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end. No summary because bedtime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Days turns into years and into centuries...' The quote for this chapter XD. From 'Luna' by Eurobeat Brony.

Further decoding of the files, once the code was cracked only a few days later, showed that the pair were telling the truth.

Bruce and Tony had spent twenty years in 'rehabilitation', according to the files, which included some horrifying video clips. They had then spent two hundred and fifty years in created realities that could not be recorded but what happened is in a detailed statement by Bruce and Tony for each one.

Then, they had spent the four months of their capture that had been in their time had been spent in that 'drugs warehouse' being tortured.

What had been done to their bodies using magic was described in the files. They had been altered to put their lives on a constant loop; eighteen to thirty four. Apparently that was their 'true age' or something similar to that.

Bruce and Tony had lied about a lot. But now, the debrief wasn't needed, and all that was left before they could start cleaning up all the messes that had been left behind and get Tony and Bruce back on the team was the press conference.

And Tony and Bruce got to decide everything that they said. Otherwise they'd quit SHIELD.

"Hello." Tony said, smiling hesitantly at the crowd, as they gasped and snapped photos. More were snapped as Bruce followed behind Tony closely.

They blinked fearfully at the cameras but kept going until they reached the podium.

"Well, it's been a while since we were standing here." Tony said.

The crowd laughed. "Though, in all seriousness, it has been a long time. We don't really have much to say, so, questions?"

Almost every reporter in the room put their hands up. "Yes?" Tony said, picking a man sitting at the middle.

"Mr Stark, and Doctor Banner, why have you regressed in age?"

"Well, the key question." Bruce said. "We don't remember the process, but it happened at the start of when we were kidnapped."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it, folks.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Did I have you there? Of course it isn't the end! The next fic, Early Containment, focuses on the early parts of Bruce and Tony's containment. That will only be one or two chapters. The actual sequel to this will take place after the torture fics and the 250 dreams.
> 
> Here, I must thank the constant commenters. These are RebeccaOTool, who has an amazing Loki icon, Laura_Trekkie, with her amazing extensive analysis of this fic, and most of all, MacaroonSundials, for her constant support. (I apologise if any of you are male)


End file.
